


It Will Come Back

by catwrites



Series: Sweet Creature [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Scent Marking, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 09:55:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catwrites/pseuds/catwrites
Summary: There was a wolf lurking in the woods around Raleigh's house.Despite Yancy's warnings, he might have fed it. And everyone knows what happens when you feed strays.





	It Will Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, hello, hi. This was inspired by Hozier's "It Will Come Back" and it wouldn't leave me alone. Enjoy.

There was wolf in the woods around his property. It kept to itself, and Raleigh only saw glances of it every now and then when it wandered close enough to the house. Just flashes of tawny fur between the trees.

Raleigh sat on his porch sometimes, and it would slink by, glancing at him before loping further away from his property. He rolled his eyes when he walked out one evening and it froze where it had been rooting through the trash that had been knocked over at some point during the day. 

He started leaving meat out for it, towards the edge of what the wolf has deemed acceptable distance from the house. They both continue to ignore each other besides that.

Yancy called once a week. To catch up, he said. Raleigh knew he was really just checking up on him. Making sure he was still alive, and not wallowing in self-pity and sorrow.

Raleigh let Yancy rant about life in the auto shop he owned in their hometown, before he couldn’t help but ask. 

“What do you know about wolves?” Raleigh asked, cutting off Yancy’s frustrated story about a teenager who put the wrong type of gasoline in a diesel engine. 

“Wolves? Like the big, dangerous canines with huge teeth? Those wolves?”

Raleigh huffed. “Forget about it.”

“Rals, I know you’re a bleeding heart, but taking in carnivorous wild animals is not a good idea.”

“I haven’t taken anything in. It just skulks around in the woods.”

There was a pause. “Kid, you already sound fond. At least tell me you haven’t been feeding it.”

“Just scraps and leftovers,” Raleigh said defensively.

Yancy groaned. “Just be careful, Mowgli. You know what they say about feeding strays.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure thing. Love ya.”

Raleigh rolled his eyes, but replied easily. “Love you too.”

He went about his life, and the wolf continued to skulk around his house. 

He should have realized that would change.

Dark clouds were rolling across the sky, and the distant rumble of thunder backed up the claims of the weatherman on the radio. The pressure in the air shifted, and Raleigh hurried through the trees in an effort to get back to his cabin before the storm actually broke.

He was nearly home when he heard something whining. He paused, and thunder clapped directly over his head. He stood still a second longer, before the pitiful sound of whatever it was pulled him into action. He trudged in the direction of the noise, scanning the trees. Something in his gut told him it was the wolf. His wolf.

It was indeed his wolf, large furred body twisting around the same spot desperately. It froze when it saw him, and then started growling deep in its throat, lips pulled back in a snarl. Raleigh could see that its leg was caught in a trap.

“Hey there. It’s okay, yeah? I just want to help,” Raleigh said, inching forward towards the wolf. The wolf snarled at him. He took a few more careful steps forward, before crouching down.

The wolf bared its teeth, growling steadily. 

“I just want to help,” Raleigh promised softly, reaching towards the chain of the trap.

The wolf snapped at him, though it didn’t come close to his reaching hand. Raleigh could tell it was a warning. 

“Hey, asshole, I’m trying to get you out of there,” Raleigh said in frustration. 

The wolf stopped growling abruptly, wide green eyes watching Raleigh’s every movement. When Raleigh’s fingers brushed the chain, it whined a little. Raleigh paused, watching carefully for it to make a move towards him, but it didn’t. He moved slowly closer, and grabbed the metal bar near the wolf’s leg. It put Raleigh’s face uncomfortably close to the wolf’s sharp teeth.

The wolf was holding eerily still as it panted raggedly, breath ruffling Raleigh’s hair. 

He took a moment to look at the trap, before he pressed down on the springs and pried the jaws apart. The wolf darted away as soon as its been freed, pausing for a second to glance at him, before continuing on its way, deeper into the woods. 

Raleigh watched it go, trying to see if it was limping or not, before a fat drop of water landed directly on the top of his head. Lightning flashed across the sky, bathing the trees in white. He stood quickly, and made the rest of the way back to his house at a brisk walk, watching the ground around his feet for more traps. 

There weren’t often storms in this part of the country, but this one was bad. Thunder rattled the house as he closed the door behind himself. He stomped his shoes out on the mat and carefully lined them up together by the door. 

He didn’t think about the wolf as he went about cooking his dinner and settling in for the night. The storm raged around him, but he had always been good at sleeping through noise.

That was, until sometime just after midnight, when he woke up to the sound of howling outside his door.

There was a brief pauses, as if the animal doing it was listening for a response before it started up again, loud and impossible to ignore. 

Raleigh threw the sheets off himself, and climbed out of bed clumsily. He cautiously opened the front door, allowing the rain to come slanting in and hit his bare feet. Outside on his porch, soaking wet, was the wolf. It stared at him until, a little confused, he opened the door wider and allowed the animal in. It brushed gently against him as it passed.

It sat down in the entry way, water dripping off the ends of its fur.

“Well aren’t you just pathetic,” Raleigh said. 

The wolf curled its lip at him, before standing and shaking itself out. 

When it finished, Raleigh and his floors suitably wet, it sat down again with an air of satisfaction. 

They stared at each other silently, before Raleigh sighed and went in search of some towels. “Just wait there, yeah?”

The wolf, much to his chagrin, was spread out on his couch when he came back.

He muttered under his breath while he mopped up the water on his floor. The wolf never took its eyes off him.

“Just make yourself at home,” he told it sarcastically. It rolled around on the cushions in response.

“Yeah fuck you too,” Raleigh said quietly, wincing when his knees popped as he stood. “I’m going back to bed. Don’t tear up my furniture.” 

He made his way down the hall, and heard the soft thump of the wolf getting off the couch. He shook his head in disbelief that he had allowed the creature into his house, and was leaving it unsupervised to rip apart his things. 

As he turned to close the door to his room, the wolf was right on his heels. It used his moment of surprise to push into the room. When it looked like the wolf was going to jump up onto his bed, Raleigh moved quickly in after it.

“Oh no, I don’t think so.”

The wolf stared at him. 

“At least let me dry you off first,” Raleigh bargained, trying not to feel ridiculous for attempting to negotiate with a wild animal. 

The wolf sat down heavily, and gave him a look that Raleigh took to mean, ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with it’.

Raleigh approached with the towel carefully. It eyed him, but didn’t move as he got closer. The wolf allowed him to dry its fur to the best of his ability, even helpfully lifting paws without prompting. When Raleigh finally deemed the fur dry enough and stood, the wolf didn’t wait before hoping up onto the bed and flopping down with its head on a pillow. Raleigh’s pillow.

Raleigh opened his mouth, before he huffed. The wolf looked at him, and Raleigh could swear it looked smug.

“You’re a presumptuous little shit, aren’t you?”

Raleigh threw the towels onto the chair in the corner, and climbed into the wrong side of the bed. He settled in, and figured he’d be awake for a while wondering what the hell he was doing.

He was out like a light almost as soon as his head touched the (wrong) pillow.

And then he was awake because of more ungodly howling. 

Raleigh jolted up. He glanced at the clock before allowing his head to fall back into his pillow with a groan. 

The house went quiet for a moment before the wolf was howling again.

“Okay! Okay! I’m up,” he called, before rolling out of bed. 

The wolf was waiting at the front door. It gave him an impatient look before standing up with its front paws on the door. 

“Not even going to stick around for breakfast?” Raleigh asked it as it dropped down and allowed him to get a grip on the handle of the door.

He opened it up, and the wolf trotted down the stairs and disappeared between the trees with a final backward glance over its shoulder.

Raleigh watched it go, before shutting the door gently. He briefly considered going back to bed, but he was awake now. Might as well do something mildly productive, and by that, he meant see what all the internet had to say about mild-mannered, green-eyed wolves.

All he really managed to gather was that it was probably some wolf-dog mix, though it was certainly wolf sized. He shut his laptop and vowed to never mention his house guest to anyone, but especially Yancy. 

The next evening, the wolf was back, sitting on his porch and waiting for him as he put the car in park. 

“Welcome back,” he told it as he opened the door for both of them. The wolf trotted in ahead of him, brushing against his side first before making a beeline for the couch that still had hair all over it from their first meeting.

Raleigh went about his usual evening routine, talking to the wolf softly about his day. It was nice, having someone to talk to, even if that someone couldn’t talk back and seemed to be more interested in the food Raleigh offered it.

The wolf started showing up more frequently until it became a constant shadow in his house.

He would come home from work, and the wolf would show up and howl until it was let in. 

Raleigh watched it eat some of the fries he’d brought home as a treat for himself. 

“That can’t be good for you,” he told it skeptically, but it didn’t seem to care.

The two of them spent a lot of time on the couch together. Despite its initial standoffish attitude, it was a cuddly little shit, getting hair on every article of clothing Raleigh put on. Not to mention all of his furniture and sheets. It would even occasionally lick his chin in greeting when it was let into the house.

He didn’t talk to anyone about it. He knew wolves to be pack creatures, and he hadn’t seen any others. He wasn’t sure what the wolf was doing out in the woods on its own, but he didn’t think it was too well off. It was lean, and before the rain had washed its fur out, it had been filthy.

Raleigh paused with his hand on the door one morning as he went to let it out for the day. “You know, whatever you’re hiding from, you’re safe here. I’m hiding too.”

The wolf studied him for a moment before it headed down the porch steps and out into the trees. 

Raleigh shrugged to himself, locking up as he headed into town for the day. 

The wolf didn’t come home that night. 

Or the next. 

Raleigh would like to say he didn’t stay up late worrying about it, but that would be a lie.

When Yancy called as he got home from work, Raleigh only hesitated a moment before he spilled the whole thing. 

“What should I do?” he finally asked the disapproving silence on the other end.

“Raleigh.” 

“I know, you told me not to, but I did it anyway, and now he or she is gone and I don’t know what to do. What if it got caught in another trap somewhere?” 

“It’s a wild animal, kid. It probably just went back home after it had a pampered vacation at your awful cabin.” 

Raleigh didn’t respond to the sleight against his house. “I hope so.”

He allowed Yancy to launch into some tale about his buddy crashing and burning with a beautiful brunette at a bar, when there was a howling outside his door.

“I gotta go,” he said urgently into the phone. He ended the call on his brother’s startled protest. 

He flung the door open wide.

There was a shirtless man standing on his porch. Raleigh took a moment to study him, the color of his hair and the leanness of his frame, his tattered shorts. He looked painfully young and run down.

“Oi, are you going to let me in?” he asked, arms crossed uncomfortably over his chest.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow at him.

“I thought you said I could hide here.”

Raleigh stepped wordlessly back.

“Thanks,” the man muttered as he stepped into the house, gently brushing against Raleigh’s side as he passed. 

Raleigh closed the door as his wolf made a beeline for the couch. It was all very familiar, despite the wolf’s different form.

Raleigh frowned towards the couch as he made his way to the kitchen. “Where were you these past two nights?”

“Aw, mate, were you worried about me?” The man, kid really, smiled as he spread out on the cushions like he always did. 

Raleigh shrugged. 

The wolf didn’t answer.

“Okay, how about a name, then?” Raleigh tried, pulling pots and pans out of his cabinet to start dinner.

There was silence for long enough that Raleigh wondered if even that simple question would go unanswered.

“Chuck. Name’s Chuck.”

“Raleigh.”

“Yeah. I read it off your mail the first night.”

Raleigh snorted. It didn’t surprise him. He looked at Chuck, at the way he was spread out, taking up space like it was his. 

“Well, dinner is going to be a little bit,” he says, returning his attention to gathering ingredients. 

“Okay.” There was a pause and then, “Oi, you think I could get a shower then? I haven’t had one in a long while.”

Raleigh glanced at him. “Yeah, of course, Chuck. You know where the bathroom is. You can help yourself to whatever.” 

Chuck rolled off the couch. 

“Thanks, mate, I owe ya,” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hall.

Raleigh let his gaze follow Chuck until he vanished into the bedroom, and then took a moment to rub at his temple. What the fuck? 

Raleigh had always been good at rolling with the punches, but this seemed like a bit much, even for him. 

Chuck was gone for nearly twenty minutes. Just as Raleigh was starting to realize that he was letting a stranger root around in his personal belongings, Chuck appeared, looking soft in a threadbare t-shirt and flannel pajama bottoms he’d found somewhere in Raleigh’s closet.

“Thought you had drowned in there,” Raleigh commented as he put the finishing touches on the pasta he had made.

Chuck looked sheepish momentarily before he shrugged. “It took me a while to figure out how to turn the bloody thing on.”

They stared at each other for a moment.

“Here,” Raleigh said, setting a plate down at one side of his small kitchen table before settling down with his own. Chuck sat across from him, looking uncomfortable all of the sudden.

“What? We’ve done this hundreds of times. Don’t go shy on me now that you might finally talk back,” Raleigh said, twisting spaghetti around his fork.

Chuck picked up his fork and held it awkwardly in his hand. “Look, it’s just been a minute since I had opposable thumbs, yeah?”

Raleigh stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth.

“I ain’t making a big deal about it,” Chuck said defensively, damp hair falling across his forehead as he glared determinedly down at his plate.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Raleigh offered hesitantly. 

Chuck carefully twisted his fork in the spaghetti. Raleigh couldn’t tell if the long silence that followed was just concentration on the task or him thinking it over. Probably both.

“Not just yet, no. Give it some time, yeah?”

“Sure. I told you already, whatever you’re hiding from, you’re safe here. You’re welcome to stay.”

Chuck nodded his head in thanks, and they finished their meal in silence.

They lounged about in the living room after that, watching TV and trading snide commentary about the programing back and forth. 

It was nice.

Raleigh hadn’t spent one on one time with another person in a while. The closest he’d come as of late was Chuck-the-wolf. Sitting around with Chuck-the-person was just as easy. 

The third time Chuck yawned mid-sentence, Raleigh turned off the TV. 

“Hey, I was watching that,” Chuck complained half-heartedly, but he stood when Raleigh did without further protestation. 

He followed Raleigh to the bedroom and plopped down on what had become his side of the bed as a wolf. He wiggled under the covers and sighed. 

Raleigh watched him get settled, thinking again about how bizarre the situation was. He had a guest room he could offer Chuck. 

Chuck cracked an eye open and looked at him. “We’ve done this hundreds of times. Don’t go shy on me now.”

Raleigh rolled his eyes and climbed into the other side of the bed. He reached over and turned off the lamp.

There was a long beat of silence before Chuck spoke quietly into the dark. 

“Hey, Raleigh?” 

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For feeding me, and getting me out of that bloody trap. Just… for letting me stay.”

“Of course, Chuck.” He paused a minute and then said, “Thanks for keeping me company.”

They were quiet for a while before Chuck said, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Raleigh woke up the next morning with Chuck a heavy weight on his back. He turned his head to glance at the clock. He still had over an hour before he had to be up. He wiggled a little to get more comfortable, and Chuck stirred against his back, rubbing his cheek over Raleigh’s shoulder blade.

“Time s’it?” Chuck mumbled.

“Early. Still got an hour before I need to get up and head for work,” Raleigh shifted until Chuck got the hint and let Raleigh roll over onto his back. Chuck dropped back down onto Raleigh as soon as he was settled. 

“What do you there anyway?” Chuck asked, fingers curled into the fabric of Raleigh’s shirt.

“Fix broken things in people’s houses.”

“You’re a handy man?” Chuck snorted. 

“It pays the bills.”

Chuck had no smart quip for that. 

Raleigh cooked them breakfast when he finally got up. Chuck sat at the island, watching him work. 

“What are you going to do today?” Raleigh asked as casually as he could, plating eggs without looking at Chuck.

Chuck took the plate of eggs he was handed, before he said, “If it’s all right with you, mate, I was hoping I could just stay here.”

Raleigh turned to hide his pleased expression. “Don’t tear up my furniture.”

Chuck laughed, and that was settled. 

“Oi, I’ll do the dishes, just leave them,” Chuck offered when Raleigh started gathering things up and putting them in the sink.

Raleigh shrugged. “Okay. I’ll pick up something for dinner on the way home. Anything you want me to get for you while I’m in town?”

“Mate, you’ve given me more than enough already. Don’t go out of your way or nothing for me,” Chuck said, hardly looking up from the sink.

“If you’re sure,” Raleigh said, shrugging into a jacket as he heads for the door.

Chuck just waved him off, flinging water and soap suds across the counter.

So Raleigh left, deciding on his own that he would pick up at least a toothbrush for his houseguest of unknown duration. 

Which he did. He even glanced around at the clothes, figuring he could at least guestimate on Chuck’s size, and picked up a few shirts and a pair of jeans he was fairly confident would fit. He kept the receipt just in case. 

Laden down with his purchases, he pushed into his house a little tentatively. There was still the possibility that Chuck had just been there to rob him blind after being left to his own devices. He needn’t have worried. Whatever instinct in his gut that told him he could trust the kid was right because when he pushed into his house, it looked the same. Maybe even cleaner than when he had left it.

Chuck himself was stretched out on the hardwood floors in a patch of sun, still wearing the borrowed things he’d slept in last night. Raleigh almost didn’t see him for the couch. He blinked sleepily.

“Hey. Need any help carrying stuff in?” 

Raleigh hefted up the bags. “Nah, I got it all.”

Chuck yawned, stretching out after standing up. He trailed behind Raleigh into the kitchen, before frowning. He crowded into Raleigh’s space, and Raleigh froze uncertainly as Chuck smashed his face into Raleigh’s neck and breathed heavily. 

“You always smell wrong when you come back,” Chuck complained, breathing open mouthed against Raleigh’s skin.

“Uh. Sorry?” Raleigh said, holding himself still. 

Chuck huffed unhappily as he stepped back. “Whatever.”

“I got you some stuff,” Raleigh said in a rush, setting that bag on the counter before emptying the other bags of their groceries. “You’ll have to try it on and tell me if it all fits.”

He could hear Chuck sifting through the bag. “Oi, I told ya you didn’t need to get me anything, yeah?”

“It’s not a big deal. We can go into town together over the weekend and you can pick out some stuff for yourself, even.”

Chuck was quiet behind him, and Raleigh turned around to look at him questioningly. “Maybe that’s not the best idea, mate.”

Raleigh shrugged, before he tried to reassure him. “You don’t have to, but the offer stands.”

Chuck smiled at him. “Thanks.” 

Life with Chuck settled into some kind of routine. It was easy. Sometimes, they argued, and Chuck would disappear into the woods, just a tawny tail vanishing between the trees. He always came back though. More often than not in time for dinner. Once, he didn’t howl at the door until just around midnight, and Raleigh nearly pulled something in his haste to get to the door. For the most part, they got along well enough, and Raleigh would be lying if he said he wasn’t glad for the company. 

Chuck kept the house clean and lounged around, looking comfortable and at home. Raleigh tried to remind himself that it was all temporary, but it was hard to remember that when Chuck was grumbling about how early it was, sleeping in Raleigh’s bed and wearing his clothes. Raleigh also tried to remind himself that it didn’t mean anything like that for Chuck. Chuck, who had spent who knows how long in his wolf body, living in the woods. 

The wolf instincts were hard to push down after spending time at length in that form. Chuck explained this, blushing and not meeting Raleigh’s eyes, after he nipped Raleigh’s jaw one evening as they were stretched out together on the couch. Raleigh knew wolves were tactile creatures, which explained the cuddling. So Raleigh pushed down his growing affections, and ignored it to the best of his ability. 

When Raleigh woke up on the day things would change, Chuck was sitting as a wolf in front of the door, patiently waiting to be let out. Raleigh let him out, bid him farewell, and locked up behind them, deciding he would get breakfast on his way to work today. 

The day felt like any other, but when he pulled up in front of his house that night, there was a rental car sitting in his drive. 

Cursing, Raleigh hurried to get out of his own car and took the stairs up to his door two at a time. 

Yancy was sitting on the couch, surfing through the channels on the TV. He stood when Raleigh came through the door.

“Baby brother! I was beginning to worry you were never going to come home.” 

“What are you doing here?” Raleigh asked, but hugged Yancy back tightly.

Yancy frowned, mock hurt, as he pulled away. “Is that anyway to greet your favorite brother? This is my birthday present to myself, coming to see your anti-social ass. Though, from the snooping I’ve done around here, you’re not as alone as I thought you were.” 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Raleigh lied, glancing at the door like he might be able to make a break for safety. 

“Two toothbrushes in the master bathroom. Sheets rumpled on both sides of the bed. Clothes that aren’t your size in the closet,” Yancy said, ticking items off on his fingers as he listed them. “Need I go on?”

“Definietly not,” Raleigh muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up uncomfortably. 

“Gotta say, I’m a little hurt baby bro. How could you not tell me about your secret lover? All I heard about was the wolf you were adopting. Though I don’t see him around either.”

“It’s not like that.”

Yancy raised an eyebrow. “Which part?”

“Both.”

“Whatever you say, kid.”

Raleigh stared at him, then smiled. “It really is good to see you, though you broke into my house unannounced.” 

Yancy scoffed. “I have a key, baby brother.”

They bickered with each other as Raleigh made dinner. Yancy gave him a questioning look when he pulled out enough stuff for three, but Raleigh ignored him. He didn’t know if Chuck would hang back because there was a stranger in the house or not, but he could always reheat something later. He also didn’t know what form Chuck would appear in, but he figured Yancy would meet at least one of them soon enough. It was inevitable at this point. 

Sure enough, while they were sitting at the kitchen table, Chuck howled to be let in. Raleigh thought he sounded particularly loud tonight.

“What the fuck is that?” 

Raleigh grinned a little as he got up to let Chuck in. Chuck came in slowly, eyeing Yancy warily. 

“Jesus Christ! That thing is huge,” Yancy said, eyeing Chuck just as nervously. 

Raleigh rolled his eyes. “Yancy, don’t be such a baby. This is Chuck.”

“You not only fed it, but now you’ve named it too?!” 

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. “Stop being so dramatic.”

Chuck took the long way around the table, avoiding Yancy, to sit beside Raleigh’s chair. He whined for good measure. 

Raleigh shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, okay. Hold on.”

He put what he had made for Chuck on a plate and set it down on the floor in front of him.

Yancy watched Chuck eat avidly for a few minutes before he looked at Raleigh with a raised eyebrow. Raleigh shrugged. 

Yancy pursed his lips, but didn’t comment. Raleigh should have been suspicious that he just let the subject of the giant wolf sitting in the kitchen with them go.

“So… Do I get to meet the other inhabitant of this house? The one who shares your bed?”

Raleigh choked on the water he had just taken a sip of, and Chuck’s ears perked up in interest. 

“I told you it’s not like that,” Raleigh muttered. He knew his face must be bright red. 

“Oh come off it.”

“I’m serious. I’m just helping a friend out,” Raleigh said, and then immediately regretted how that sounded when Yancy waggled an eyebrow at him.

“Helping out a friend, huh?” Yancy asked. “You want it to be like that, though, don’t you?”

Raleigh opened his mouth to answer, but Yancy threw a fist up in victory.

“You do! Look at your face. Oh man, when do I get to meet this friend? You gotta let me vet them, little brother.” Yancy half stood in his chair so he could reach across the table and ruffle Raleigh’s hair.

Chuck growled, low in his throat. It wasn’t the playful thing he sometimes used on Raleigh either. Yancy froze.

“It’s fine. He’s just…. territorial. Knock it off, Chuck,” Raleigh scolded, nudging into Chuck’s side. 

“Possessive bastard,” Yancy muttered.

Raleigh stood, gathering dishes, and left Chuck and Yancy to their staring contest. 

When the three of them moved into the living room to watch TV, Chuck very pointedly climbed up on the couch and sat with his head in Raleigh’s lap. He never took his eyes off Yancy.

“Doesn’t that make you nervous?” Yancy asked, sitting in the arm chair that was a safe distance away from the couch, and therefore from Chuck. 

“What? Chuck?” Raleigh rubbed one of Chuck’s velvety ears between his fingers. “Nah. He’s harmless.”

Chuck huffed in his lap, and then lifted his head so he could lick a stripe across Raleigh’s face. Raleigh wrinkled his nose in disgust. 

Yancy watched them in fascination, before turning his attention to the TV. “You’re funeral when he decides you taste good one day.”

“I don’t think that’s how wolves work,” Raleigh said, running his hand through the fur along Chuck’s flank. 

Chuck made a big show of yawning and rolling over on his back.

“You’re both crazy,” Yancy said with finality, and they went back to watching TV.

“How long are you staying for?” Raleigh asked during one of the commercials of the sitcom they were watching. 

“A week, if you can put up with me for that long.”

“It’s not me you have to worry about,” Raleigh said, and grinned when Yancy’s eyes immediately dropped to Chuck. 

Raleigh pushed Chuck’s head out of his lap two episodes later. “I’m headed for bed. The guest room is all yours. There are towels and extra blankets in the closet across the hall next to the bathroom.”

Yancy waved him away, enthralled with a commercial for a remote-control plane. 

Chuck followed along behind him, and Raleigh closed the door after he came through. 

When he turned around, Chuck the human was standing there. 

He crowded into Raleigh’s space, and Raleigh huffed a little as his back hit the door. 

“I don’t like it when you smell like other people,” Chuck said quietly, running his nose along Raleigh’s neck and over the pulse point. 

“I don’t know how I could possibly smell like anything else when you’re constantly all over me,” Raleigh whispered back, trying to keep his voice down in fear of Yancy hearing them.

Chuck wrinkled his nose as he stepped back. “Trust me, you do.”

Then Chuck smirked at him, and Raleigh cringed. “So…. You’re interested in me, huh?”

“It doesn’t have to change anything, okay? We can continue on like we have been,” Raleigh said, shrugging uncomfortably. 

Chuck stepped back into him, and Raleigh made himself not move away. “What if that was something I was interested in too, yeah?”

Raleigh shivered when Chuck dragged his nose across Raleigh’s cheek. “That would be… good, yeah.”

Chuck hummed, skimming down to the corner of Raleigh’s jaw and biting down gently, then nuzzling his face into Raleigh’s neck. Raleigh let his head fall back, exposing his throat to the wolf. Chuck froze a little, before setting his teeth against the fragile skin there and then licking over it. 

Chuck eventually deemed whatever he was doing to Raleigh’s throat satisfactory, and pulled away enough to look him in the eye.

“I’ve wanted you since the day you let me in your house in the rain,” Chuck admitted, swaying closer.

Raleigh pushed forward and kissed him then. Chuck whined, surging into it. 

Chuck was the right kind of rough, digging his fingers into Raleigh’s hair and tugging, moving them away from the door and back towards the bed. Raleigh let Chuck lift the shirt off over his head, and then let himself be pushed down onto the mattress.

Chuck climbed up over him. He leaned down and rubbed his cheek against Raleigh’s stomach. “You come home smelling like other people and their houses. I hate it.”

“I promise I don’t do it on purpose.”

Chuck grinned at him. “That’s okay. I’ll just have to make sure my smell’s harder to cover up, yeah?”

Chuck leaned down and kissed him, warm and dirty. Raleigh opened up under him, all those feelings he had been pushing back rising to the surface. Raleigh tugged on the hem of his shirt. 

“Take this off,” he said quietly, barely pulling back from Chuck to speak. 

Chuck pulled it up over his head and flung it to the side. Raleigh gently ran his hand up over Chuck’s side. Chuck watched him before he leaned down and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the hollow of Raleigh’s throat. He spent a second just breathing against the skin there, before sucking a bruise to the surface. Raleigh arched up into it with a groan. 

“Jesus, okay,” Raleigh said to the ceiling. 

Chuck huffed a laugh, pulling back to admire his work. “Now, even without scent people will know.”

Raleigh went hot all over. “Yeah…. Maybe you should do a couple more, just in case.”

Chuck's eyes went dark. "Yeah?" 

Raleigh's heart hammered in his chest as he nodded. 

So Chuck went about sucking marks down Raleigh's chest.

Raleigh let him get a couple more in before he flipped them. Chuck went still and made a questioning noise in his throat. Raleigh stroked his fingers across Chuck's throat. Chuck shuddered and went boneless under him, tipping his chin back. 

Raleigh leaned down and nuzzled into Chuck's neck. Chuck made a noise that rumbled through his chest. 

"My turn, right?" Raleigh said, running his nose along Chuck's jaw and nipping at it the same way Chuck had done to him previously.

"You're turn," Chuck agreed, panting. 

Raleigh pulled away enough to look at his flushed face and marvel at how responsive he was.

Raleigh figured he'd copy Chuck's first mark, and put one right at the base of Chuck's throat. 

Chuck jolted as soon as he started. Raleigh maybe got a little carried away listening to the noises that were spilling out of Chuck's mouth.

Raleigh pulled back and whistled lowly. "Well. There's no mistaking that for anything else."

Chuck groaned and pulled Raleigh down to kiss him.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. Raleigh got a hand between them, undoing their flies enough to get a grip on both of them together. Chuck hid his face in Raleigh’s neck, gasping out as Raleigh stroked them.

It didn’t take long before they were both spilling, hot and tacky, over Raleigh’s fingers. He rolled off Chuck, breathing fast, to stare up at the ceiling. Chuck propped himself up on his elbow and ran a hand through the mess on Raleigh’s stomach, rubbing it into his skin.

“That’s disgusting,” Raleigh commented, turning to look at Chuck. Chuck just shrugged.

“Yeah, whatever,” he said, wiping his hand off on the leg of Raleigh’s pants, before stretching out on top of Raleigh. He didn’t seem to care about the stickiness between them.

“We should really wash up.”

Chuck huffed into Raleigh’s neck, nuzzling the skin under his ear. “Leave it for now.”

Raleigh sighed, but wrapped an arm around Chuck. “No complaining tomorrow morning.”

Chuck was quiet long enough that Raleigh thought he’d gone asleep. 

“Your brother is afraid of me,” Chuck commented, tugging gently on the hair curling against the nape of Raleigh’s neck. 

“Maybe a little,” Raleigh said, grinning.

Chuck was quiet again. Then, “I… I ran away from home when I was, shit, nineteen? Yeah, nineteen. Lived in the fucking woods like the wild animal I am. I wasn’t born like this, ya know? I was out late, where I shouldn’t have been, paid the price for it. But my dad. When he first saw me… He was terrified, mate. Just bloody bonkers with it. So I took off. I wasn’t gonna make my old man uncomfortable to be in his own house, uncomfortable to be around me.” 

Raleigh pulled Chuck in tight against him, running his fingers comfortingly through the Chuck’s hair.

“I forgot what it was like, for people to not be afraid of me. Until you,” Chuck smiled up at him, soft and dimpled. 

“Don’t worry about Yancy. He’ll come around,” Raleigh promised.

“Don’t mean to sound sappy, Ray, but you’re all I need.”

How Raleigh managed to forget about Yancy after that, he would never know, but he regretted that mistake the moment he woke up to Yancy throwing the door open.

“Wake up, kid, I’ve….,” Yancy froze in the door way, mouth slightly opened in shock.

Raleigh imagined he didn’t look much better. Chuck just hid his face under Raleigh’s chin.

“Oi, shut up, yeah?” Chuck muttered, voice gravely.

“Holy shit,” Yancy said, voice loud in the quiet of the room.

Chuck rolled over, shoving his head under the pillow. “Ray, would you please deal with that?”

Raleigh considered standing up, but thought better of it when he remembered the mess of dried come on his stomach. 

“Yance, why don’t you go make some coffee or something? I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Yancy smirked at him. “Oh sure thing, Ray. Bring your friend with you.”

Raleigh groaned as Yancy disappeared down the hall. He climbed out of bed and made his way into the bathroom. 

Chuck followed a few minutes later, hair a gravity defying mess on his head.

“This is going to be awful,” Raleigh warned him, already drying off from the quick shower he’d just taken.

Chuck titled his head, considering. “You’re embarrassed.”

Raleigh snorted. “Yeah, I’m embarrassed.” 

He turned to the mirror to look at himself, and saw Chuck duck his head down in the reflection.

“Oh,” Chuck said, quietly enough that he almost didn’t hear him over the running water.

Raleigh turned to face him. “Chuck. I’m embarrassed because we’re about to go out there and my older brother is going to ask some really uncomfortable questions. Not because of you.”

“Oh,” Chuck said again.

“Yeah, oh. Now get cleaned up so we can go out there and let him laugh at us.”

Chuck shot him a pleased little smile, before he stepped into the shower. Raleigh shook his head fondly, before he headed out to face his brother. 

Yancy grinned at him over the rim of his mug. 

“So it’s not like that, huh?” 

“It wasn’t, before,” Raleigh muttered, hip checking Yancy out of the way to pull out two more mugs.

“That does bring up an excellent question. When did he show up?”

Raleigh ignored him, pouring coffee and doctoring it to his and Chuck’s personal taste.

“You went to bed pretty late, little brother. How late did your booty call show up?”

Chuck chose that moment to walk out, a pair of Raleigh’s sleep pants slung low on his hips and no shirt. In the light of day, the hickey on his throat was vivid purple. Raleigh felt his face heat up as Yancy turned to stare at him.

Chuck eyed Yancy as he came into the kitchen, still wary of him, before he took the mug from Raleigh’s hand. He studied Raleigh’s face for a second, looking for something, before grinning and leaning up to bite him gently on the corner of the jaw. “Thanks.”

“Yes, hi, my name is Yancy. That is my little brother you are slobbering on,” Yancy said, nose wrinkled. 

“Yeah, we met last night.”

“What?” Yancy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, looking to Raleigh for help. 

Raleigh could feel the headache coming on.

“Yancy, this is Chuck.” 

Chuck grinned at him, and then growled low in his throat. That was the playful growl Raleigh was used to, but Yancy’s eyes went wide and he took a small step back.

“Stop being a little shit,” Raleigh said, shoving Chuck gently.

“So let me get this straight. You not only let the wolf into your house and fed it, now you’re fucking it.”

“Yancy! There’s been no fucking.”

Yancy shot a pointed look at the dark bruise on Chuck’s throat.

Chuck shrugged, and offered helpfully, “There’s been no fucking yet.”

Raleigh groaned and hide his face in his hand. He should have realized that introducing the two of them was a bad idea.

Despite the rocky start, their weekend passed easily. Chuck warmed up to Yancy, though Raleigh could tell that Yancy was still nervous around the wolf version of Chuck. Chuck took off into the woods Sunday morning, giving Yancy and Raleigh some time to talk.

It was nice.

It was easy. 

Raleigh should have known it wouldn’t last.

Monday, Raleigh came home from work and Yancy was waiting for him.

“So I went in to town today, just to chat around with the locals and meet all the people you know, right? Imagine my surprise, when they mention they didn’t know you even had a brother. Apparently, you keep to yourself, up here, by yourself in the woods, and you have since you moved here. No one knows a single thing about you.” 

Raleigh stood uncomfortably in his kitchen. “And?”

“And? What the fuck, Raleigh? You can’t hide yourself away from everyone. You can’t keep punishing yourself for the what could have happeneds.”

“I’m not punishing myself, and I’m not alone up here, anyway.”

“Can’t forget the runaway feral kid who’s been hiding in the woods as a dangerous animal for two and a half years. But you didn’t know he was a kid, at first, did you? No, you were out here tempting fate with, for what you knew, was a giant wild animal. You aren’t afraid of him because you don’t care if he hurts you. You don’t care.” 

Raleigh threw his arms up. “You think I’m not scared of him? You think I don’t know that he’s the only thing in these woods that could hurt me?” 

Behind him, there was a noise not unlike the sound an animal makes when someone steps on its tail. Raleigh whipped around. 

Chuck had his hand on the handle of the door, and was looking at Raleigh, eyes wide and hurt. 

“Chuck,” Raleigh started, but before he could say anything, Chuck was gone. 

“Shit,” Raleigh said to the slamming door. 

“Raleigh….” Yancy began, reaching out for him.

“Don’t touch me,” Raleigh snarled, yanking his shoes on without even bothering with his socks. “Help me find him, or you can get out of our house.” 

Raleigh jogged out into the woods. “Chuck!” 

He searched around in the trees for any sign of him, but found nothing. 

“Damn it. Chuck! That’s not how I meant it. Just come home, and I can explain.”

There was no response. Raleigh ran a frustrated hand through his hair and tugged. 

“Raleigh…” Yancy said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“What if he doesn’t come back? Shit. Fuck! Yancy, I have to find him. He just had to fucking hear that part of it.”

“What are you on about?” 

“He ran away from home because his dad was scared of him! Fuck, he didn’t want to make his dad uncomfortable in the house. I’ve never been scared of him. Not once. I didn’t mean it that way.” 

Yancy was quiet, listening to him rant.

“I just… He’s the only thing in this damn place that could hurt me. He’s the only thing I’ve gotten close to. Shit. I fucking love him, okay? And he could hurt me that way. He could…”

“Whoa, whoa, okay, calm down. We’ll find him.”

Raleigh stared at him desperately. 

“We’ll find him,” Yancy promised. “Look, I’ll head into town and ask around and see if there have been any wolf sightings. You search around here and I’ll meet up with you at the house in an hour.”

“Okay.” Raleigh felt calmer with a plan, but the hurt look on Chuck’s face before he turned away was burned into his memory. 

Raleigh tromped around in the woods, calling Chuck’s name and cursing, until he headed back to the house empty handed. 

Yancy pulled into the drive right as Raleigh was climbing up the porch steps.

“Anything?” Raleigh asked hopefully.

Yancy shook his head. “No. I did, however, talk to a guy at the pub. A Herc Hansen who was particularly interested in me snooping around after a wolf. His son went missing a few years back. Said if we found him, he’d really appreciate it if we passed a message along to him.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Said he’d like to meet up with him. Talk about what happened.” 

Raleigh nodded slowly. “We have to find him first.”

“We’re going to find him, Raleigh. You still have those walkies, right? We’ll split up and keep looking around the woods until we can’t see anymore. I’ll help you find him, okay? I’m sorry.” 

In the end, it was Yancy who found him. 

“Uh, Rals? I think I’ve found your boy.”

“Hold on, okay? I’m coming. Don’t let him leave.”

Raleigh could hear the growling over the walkie as Yancy answered. “Yeah, I’ll do my best.”

Yancy was sitting on a log several yards away from a den dug into some tree roots. He pointed in that direction, and Raleigh started towards it. 

The growling started up almost as soon as Raleigh began moving in that direction. 

“Chuck?”

The growling got louder. “Chuck, come on. Chuck I’m so sorry. You heard the wrong part of that. I’m not afraid of you. I promise. I never have been.”

The growling didn’t stop.

“I’m afraid of you because you’re the only thing in this place that I care about, okay? That’s what I’m afraid of. I put the things I care about in danger. I’m afraid of you because I could hurt you. You could hurt me, too, but I don’t think you’d do it on purpose. And I know you wouldn’t physically hurt me, yeah?” 

Chuck was still growling in his den, but Raleigh just sat at the mouth of it. He could see Chuck’s green eyes glowing in the dark between the tree roots. 

“I’m not afraid of you, and I’m not leaving until you come out here and talk to me.”

Chuck didn’t come out for what felt like hours. The sky got dark.

Yancy had disappeared at some point, though Raleigh knew he had just gone home to give Raleigh and Chuck a chance to talk it out. 

Eventually, Chuck crawled forward and into Raleigh’s lap. Raleigh buried his face in Chuck’s fur and held on tight.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I hurt you, even unintentionally. That’s the shit I’m afraid of, okay?”

Chuck whined.

“When I was your age, I nearly got my brother killed,” Raleigh said softly, stroking his hands through Chuck’s fur. 

“We were both firefighters in our hometown. Our chief, Stacker, he told us that the building was unstable and that we weren’t to enter it. I did anyway, because I could hear someone in there, and I couldn’t just leave whoever it was. Well, the building started coming down and Yancy had to come in after me. The building came down around us. No one was badly hurt, just a couple broken ribs and some bad bruising, but I retired after that. I moved out here to hide from my problems. I just felt so guilty, you know? I almost got him killed. It was one thing for me, going in there on my own, but Yancy? I couldn’t take that.”

Chuck licked at his face. “Yeah. Yancy retired after that as well. Said if I wasn’t going to stay, he was going to give it up too. That was his fucking dream job, Chuck. He loved it, and he quit because of me.”

“I don’t like hurting the people I care about. So that’s why I tried to stay away from everyone. Then there was you.”

Raleigh smiled at him. “You just shoved your way into my life. This soggy pile of bone and fur, and I figured a pet was safe enough, right? And then, obviously, you were more than that. This kid hiding from the same shit I was hiding from.”

Chuck huffed out. 

“You know Yancy talked to your dad?” 

Chuck froze in his arms. “Hansen, right? Yeah, he wanted us to pass along a message when we found you. That he was sorry. That he’d like to talk to you about what happened. He misses you.”

Chuck whined, and then he was human, sitting in Raleigh’s lap and holding on tight.

“You talked to my dad?”

“Yancy did. After you ran off, we looked all over for you. Yancy went into town to ask after any wolf sightings. Your dad was apparently pretty interested in a missing wolf as well.”

“I just don’t want him to look at me the way he did that night, yeah? I can’t handle that again.”

“How about this? You come home, and we can eat dinner, and Yancy will apologize for the shit he said, too, and then you can sleep on it. Whatever you decide to do, I’m with you, okay?”

“I can come back home, right? After I talk to him? I can come back to you?”

Raleigh laughed in relief. “Of course you can. Chuck, I love you. You can stay in my house as long as you want.”

Chuck nodded, and bit Raleigh’s jaw harder than usual before rubbing his face into Raleigh’s neck. Together, they walked back to the house. 

(The next evening, Yancy and Raleigh accompanied Chuck to the pub. Herc knocked over his stool in his haste to stand up and hug his son, before he tugged Raleigh and Yancy in as well.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Comments more than welcomed!


End file.
